1. Session 3: ConsideringPeople and Nature
1) New item / thought provoking item of the day;
2) Group discussion;
3) Chapter 2: Separating Humans and Nature;
1) Lecture on Nature and Environmental
Determinism & Human Use of Nature.
September 12, 2013
Bay of
Fundy, Canada
Norton, W. (2005). Cultural Geography: Environments, Landscapes, Identities, and
Inequalities. Oxford University Press, Don Mills.
Readings: Chapter 2 of Norton – Separating Humans and Nature;
Environmental Determinism; Human Use of Nature

2. New item / thought provoking item of the day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e6_cY3-J3o
Richard Louv - Nature
Deficit Disorder
Author and co-founder
of Children and Nature
Network

3. Instructions:
- Work as a group of 3 or 4 and answer the questions;
- Take approximately 5 minutes to answer each question;
- Designate a note taker and one person to respond to each question
Questions
1. Is Richard Louv’s ‘nature deficit disorder’ something that relates
to culture? Please elaborate on your answer.
2. What does it mean to be connected with ‘nature’? Does culture
or place have any bearing on this?
3. What does Richard Louv mean by the ‘transformative power of
nature’? How does this relate to ‘wilderness’ as a concept?
4. Why do you think the environmental movement is struggling
with diversity and finding new forms of leadership?
Class exercise – perceptions of nature

4. The trouble with cultural evolution and ‘primitivism’
Cultural evolution (different from understanding culture
as changing):
- savagery: hunting & gathering, limited technology;
- barbarism: agriculture, settled villages and towns;
- civilization: writing.
“Primitive societies”
- based on the concept that societies become more
‘civilized’ throughout time;
- imposes a hierarchy on practice and different relationships
with nature;
- implies that some are better or “more evolved”
(value implication: better instead of just changed)
- fails to acknowledge different forms of knowledge such as
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) as being valuable.

5. Nature and Environmental Determinism
Source: Norton 2005, Figure 2.1, pg. 44
One of the first popular approaches to cultural
geography – Ratzel, German geographer
Based on positivism: Cause – effect relationship
between culture and the natural environment
Typical assertion: “people in temperate climates were
both more talented than those in the colder north and
more energetic than those in the warmer south”
justified cultural relativism: used to justify slavery
and other forms of gross & more subtle forms of
oppression
*Quote: page 46
Social Darwinism – survival of the fittest  cause of
much discrimination

6. Anishinaabe teachings

7. Norton (2005, pg. 48): “embarrassingly simplistic”, though popular until
the mid 20th century
Naïve as the quote on pg. 48 illustrates
“Stop and Go Determinism” (Taylor 1951) – humans control rate but not
direction of progress; human dependence and connection to natural
systems
Source: Norton 2005, Table 2.1, pg. 49

8. “Greek and Judeo-Christian ideas about the inherent responsibility of
humans to organize, change, and complete nature” (pg. 49)
Cultural Geography Interpretations
Possibilism – Vidal &Vidalians (followers), “physical environment
regarded not as determinant of human activities but as a factor that
sets limits on the range of possible human options in an
environment” (pg. 50)
Variation Probabilism *Quote pg. 51
Included rational for the way that groups perceive

9. Human Use of Nature
“Use” – is a concept, social construct, and loaded term
“dominion” over “nature” and “others” has deeply affected the
Example: the concept of conservation and protected areas
significant shifts in policy and the way “protection” is modeled
however much of the same continues
Images: National Geographic

10. Long history of colonization by the
British – deemed them
incompatible with nature
separation of humans and nature
Parks established without the prior
consent of the Maasai
The International Union for the
Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
played a major role in this.
“It is we Maasai who have preserved this priceless heritage in our land. We were sharing
it with the wild animals long before the arrival of those who use game only as a means of
making money. So please do not tell us that we must be pushed off our land for the
financial convenience of commercial hunters and hotel-keepers. Nor tell us that we must
live only by the rules and regulations of zoologists…If Uhuru (independence) means
anything at all, it means that we are to be treated like humans, not animals" (Amin, 181).
Source: Julie Narimatsu, http://www.umich.edu/~snre492/Jones/maasai.htm#Problem

12. World conservation paradigm
Shifting towards acknowledging that people are part of nature
 in policy and the passing of motions
 through specialized commissions
CEESP: Commission for Environmental, Economic and Social Policy
WCPA: World Commission on Protected Areas
Promote the TILCEPA working group: Theme on Indigenous
Peoples, Local Communities, Equity and Protected Areas
“...concerned with the social
aspects of Protected Areas.
Particular attention is given to
the
participation, rights, values, livel
ihoods and contributions of
indigenous peoples and local
communities living in or affected

13. Ways of including communities in ‘resource’ management
Different models for co-management
CS
S C
S C
C S
S: State
C: Community
Source: Carlsson& Berkes, 2005

14. Session 4: The Landscape school:
Details, challenges, and transitions
September 17, 2013
Tablelands,
South Africa
Norton, W. (2005). Cultural Geography: Environments, Landscapes, Identities, and
Inequalities. Oxford University Press, Don Mills.
Readings: Chapter 2 of Norton – The Landscape School; Towards
Holistic Emphasis; Chapter 3 – Spatial Analysis
1) News item / thought provoking item of the day
(10 mins);
2) Lecture: The Landscape school of human
geography
3) Worldview mind-mapping exercise
4) Holistic emphasis
5) Intro to concepts of spatial analysis